This is the ramp that the council installed for my wheelchair. Hardly subtle! It is a terrible eye soar in our rustic little village :(

It took over a week to build but, since having it installed, we have not been able to use it very well.

While the ramp itself is ok, the problem lies with where the ramp finishes … right next to the side of our car. When it was finished, we never realised what a problem it was going to be until we first started using it with my wheelchair.

The problem is, when in my chair, my wife can get me to the drivers door of the car, but then has to struggle carrying the folded chair across the garden to the boot. If I am being put into the passenger side, it is extremely difficult to get my chair up the ramp kerb and across the garden, in order to get to the other side of our car. In rainy weather this is awful because the grass is sloped and becomes slippery and muddy. It also means that all of our visitors and delivery people coming to our front door have to walk across the garden to get to the path. This is terrible for my mum, who is also disabled and walks with 2 sticks. She has slipped and fallen in the garden several times.

We have tried parking in a different location, but it just means that someone else then parks in our normal space and we have the same problems.
The council wont change it because it was agreed at the time (but like I said we didn't realise what a problem it was going to be). They say every time we change driver we should just drive the car out, turn it around and drive it back in!

What we want to do is extend the path to the left so it is possible to get my wheelchair to the back of the car and allow others to get to our path without walking across the garden. It only needs about 10ft. We would also like to add some trellis and climbing plants (like jasmine) to the railings to try and hide the ramp from view.

It may not seem like a lot, but being on benefits this is not something we'll ever be able to afford.